The present invention relates to manufacturing and component placement machines.
A printed circuit board (“PCB” or “printed wiring board”) has a base of one or more layers of insulating material, for example, a non-conductive substrate, bearing a pattern of conductive material. Electrical circuits can be formed when electronic components are added to a PCB. Electronic components can be embedded inside a PCB during fabrication and/or mounted (e.g. attached and soldered) on a PCB during assembly. Components can be mounted on one or both sides of a PCB. Products that include PCBs can be, by way of example, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a pager, and a computer.
A manufacturing system, particularly one used to manufacture products that include a PCB, typically includes one or more component placement machines. In general, component placement machines are used to place electronic components, for example, integrated circuits, onto a PCB. A component placement machine typically includes one or more devices, or feeders, that convey the electronic components to the component placement machine. Examples of feeders include but are not limited to bulk feeders, stick feeders, tape feeders, and tray-stack feeders. A component placement machine also typically includes one or more devices, or placement mechanisms, that move electronic components from the feeders to the appropriate location on the PCB. Examples of placement mechanisms include but are not limited to vacuum nozzles and mechanical grippers. Each placement head can have one or more placement mechanisms for picking up components from feeders and placing these components on a PCB. A gantry in a component placement machine can have one or more placement heads. A component placement machine can mount components in parallel by application of a number of parallel operating placement heads. Examples of component placement machines include but are not limited to pick-and-place machines, collect-and-place machines, and chip shooters.
A master PCB entering a component placement machine may include multiple panels, each of which panel can be subsequently further processed and separated from the master PCB during a depaneling process. Each panel, or product PCB, may contain some or all of the electronic components used in an individual product. An individual PCB in a mobile phone, by way of example, is a product PCB. Master PCBs contain multiple product PCBs. In manufacturing, electronic components are typically placed onto a master PCB.
A PCB, whether it is a master PCB or a product PCB, typically has a layout, which is a spatial arrangement of, for example, traces (conductive materials), vias and/or insulating materials forming the board. The layout also can include the spatial arrangement of other components, elements, materials and parts. A PCB also has a placement layout, which is a spatial arrangement of locations on the printed circuit board where electronic components are to be placed and a mounting configuration of each location. The placement layout of a PCB is, in a sense, a spatial arrangement of the footprints of each component that will populate the PCB. The placement layout of a PCB is determined, at least in part, by the layout of the PCB. Placing an electronic component on a PCB generally refers to the positioning of the component at the appropriate location on the PCB and includes, for example, using a gripper to mount the component at the location or using, for example, a shooter mechanism to propel the component to the location. Each component placement location on the PCB typically accommodates one or more types of electronic component. The particular combination of the types of electronic components to be placed at each location, i.e., the component configuration, is generally dictated by the product for which the PCB is being manufactured. A product PCB, thus, typically has a component configuration. Note that components can be stacked, i.e., placed on top of one another.
A component placement machine typically operates under the control of a computer, which can provide control in accordance with information included in a production file. A production file generally includes all the information needed for controlling a particular component placement machine in a process that places one or more of the components loaded in its feeders onto a PCB.